Goodbye and good luck, Swamy

It was never a matter of if. It was always a matter of when.\nKumble Subbaswamy, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, is leaving IU. On July 1 he will begin his new position as provost of the University of Kentucky.\nThere's nothing surprising about the move. The general impression was always that Subba-\nswamy, or Swamy as he is known, would leave IU after the embarrassing controversy that surrounded the search for a Bloomington chancellor last semester. When IU President Adam Herbert decided to reopen the search for the position in November, it was a virtual, and public, vote of no confidence for Swamy.\nBut there's also something sad about the move. Say what you will about the chancellor search snafu -- and we have certainly had our fair share of things to say, on both sides of the issue -- Swamy was an extremely competent, capable and highly regarded administrator. One didn't have to be on the "Swamy for chancellor" bandwagon to recognize and admire the work he did for the University. Since 2000, as dean of IU's largest school, he managed to oversee more than 50 different departments and did so with exceptional talent. \nWe wish the circumstances were different for Swamy. He was thrust into an unfortunate limelight, but has admirably stepped back from the controversy. Fortunately, in the world of higher education, there are opportunities to move on and move up. He was a finalist for not only the chief academic officer position at UK, but also for the provost position at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. At UK, where he began his career as a physics professor and eventually became the chairman of the physics department, he will have a chance to get back to his roots and lend his knowledge to a university in transition.\nAlong with Swamy's decision to leave IU, Executive Associate COAS Dean Joseph Steinmetz will become dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at University of Kansas. Now, in addition to a search for an IUB chancellor, two of the top spots in arts and sciences are open. It has become even more imperative to stay focused on the task at hand and select administrators who will keep IU running smoothly. Faculty who felt left out of the search for a chancellor should continue to make their voices heard in the upcoming new search to fill the top spots in COAS.\nIn the end, it is a testament to Swamy's administrative abilities that those who worked with him jumped so forcefully into the chancellor search controversy in his defense. In the days following Herbert's announcement to reopen the search, many professors put their reputations on the line in defense of Swamy. If he leaves IU with any specific memory, we hope he looks past the slight against him by the IU administration and remembers the coworkers who loyally defended him. \nWe're sure they join us in wishing him the best of luck.